Menstrual panty



Jan. 13, 1970 p, LARSON 3,489,149

MENSTRUAL PAN'IY Filed July '7, 1967 INVENTOR FIG. 4. Phyllis M LarsonATTORNEY United States Patent 3,489,149 MENSTRUAL PANTY Phyllis MarionLarson, 1412 Julia Ave., McLean, Va. 22101 Filed July 7, 1967, Ser. No.651,760 Int. Cl. A61f 13/16 US. Cl. 128-288 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE Panty for menstrual wear having in the crotch portion apocket for an absorbent insert or pad, one wall of said pocket having afirst layer of hydrophobic moisture-passing material on the side incontact with" the skin of the user and at least one layer of hydrophilicmaterial adjacent this first layer, and a disposable moisture-absorbingpad in the pocket in contact with the hydrophilic layer.

Disposable absorbent sanitary pads for menstrual use are well-known,these being commonly held in place by a special strap or supportarrangement or in some cases by a crotch strap on a panty type garmentas shown in US. Patent No. 3,038,474. In this type of arrangement thepad may be able to slip and cause garments to be soiled, andfurthermore, the pad itself is relatively expensive and must be used atall times, even when the flow is very light, adding to the expense. If atampon is used, this has a little string which protrudes, and due towicking action, tends to transfer moisture to undergarments.

The present invention has for its major object the provision of apanty-type garment for use primarily during the female menstrual period,said garment being made of a stain-resistant washable fabric (e.g.polyolefin) and having a small pocket in the crotch portion of thegarment for the optional use of a disposable pad which is positioned inthe pocket and which can readily be removed and replaced with a freshpad during the day, if necessary. One side of the pocket is formed bythe crotch portion of the panty, and the other side of the pocket isformed of at least one, and preferably two or more layers of wovenhydrophobic fabric, preferably having a nap on at least one side, withthe nap positioned so as to lie against the skin of the user and therebytend to provide a wicking action to transfer motion from this sidethrough the interstices of the material to the underside (the force ofgravity also aiding this effect), leaving the skin side feelingrelatively dry and comfortable. The second (and third, if used) layer,if placed with its nap surface away from the first layer, tends toretain the moisture and may be sufficient on days when the fiow is lightand spotty, as is the case for many women during most of the femalemenstrual period. During days of heavy mehstrual flow, an absorbent padis inserted into the crotch pocket to absorb the excess moisture whichthe second layer of fabric laminate cannot retain. This pad ispreferably made of non-woven absorbent material such as cotton or rayonor cellulose backed by a layer of moisture-impervious material such aspolyvinyl chloride, so that the other wall of the pocket -(i.e. theexternal crotch portion) will remain out of contact with the absorbedmoisture in the pad. The panty is washable and by the use of suitablematerial such as polyolefin fabric, which is stain-resistant, canreadily be restored to substantially its original condi tion by ordinarywashing without presoaking as in other panties.

The specific nature of the invention as well as other objects andadvantages thereof will clearly appear from a description of a preferredembodimentas shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a panty-type garment embodying the invention;

3,489,149 Patented Jan. 13, 1970 FIG. 2 is a top view, looking down intothe crotch portion of the garment;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 1'

(ljIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 2; an Y 5 is afront view of a modified form of the inventton.

Referring to the figures, the invention is embodied in a panty-typegarment 2 having the usual trunk portion and a crotch portion 3. Theentire garment is preferably made of polyolefin, of the usual knitted orwoven construction employed for such garments; however, the main body ofthe garment may also be made of cotton, nylon, rayon, orany othermaterial used for this purpose, in which case it 1s mandatory that thecrotch portion 3 should be made of polyolefin or other non-stainingfabric or its equivalent, smce this material is of good texture andappearance, but highly resistant to stains caused by body fluids, suchstains being readily removable by conventional washing processes.

On the inside of the crotch portion 3 there is sewn or otherwiseattached a pocket 4 having two edges 6 and 7 which are preferablyincorporated into the leg seams 8 and 9 respectively of the garment. Inother words, the side edges of the pocket can be sewed onto the garmentat the same time as the leg elastic, cuff, etc. is applied. The backedge 11 of the pocket is sewed across the bot tom part of the crotch,leaving the front edge 12 open to thus form the pocket. As shown inFIGS. 2 and 3, the pocket is preferably formed of two laminations 13 and(14 of suitable fabric material, e.g. polyolefin or any other suitablestain-resistant readily washable material. This material is availablecommercially in fabric form with a slight nap on one side thereof, andit is preferable that this nap, particularly on the top layer 113, beturned toward the skin of the wearer, so that it assists in drawingmoisture from this side through the interstices of the fabric, to thesecond layer 14 by wicking action combined with body pressure and theforce of gravity.

The layers 13 and '14 are of a material (e.g. polyolefin) which isessentially hydrophobic, and does not have the great ability to retainmoisture, but due to the multiplicity of nap fibers and interstices ofthe fabric, it tends when oriented with the nap surface against the bodyby wicking action to draw moisture from the upper side through theinterstices, depositing said moisture on insert face 16, or when noinsert is in place, between naps on the two layers when these are inimmediate contact. The second layer 14 when oriented oppositely to thefirst layer does have some tendency to retain moisture in theinterstices, and therefore the garment may be used without amoisture-absorbing pad in the pocket in those cases where it is onlynecessary to retain a very slight flow or a few spots of moisture.However, when the flow is substantial, as is often the case during theearly portion of the menstrual period,, :an absorbant pad 16 is insertedinto the pocket. This pad is preferably made of a suitable thickness ofnonwoven moisture-absorbent (hydrophilic) material such as cotton orrayon or cellulose fibers. The pad 16 is preferably provided with a pulltab 17, whereby it can readily be pulled even when saturated withmoisture. The underside of the pad 18 is made waterproof, preferably byspot glueing, coating, or otherwise attaching a very thin layer ofwaterproof material as polyvinyl chloride to one side of the pad. Thislayer is made very thin, preferably .001 inch or less in thickness, sothat it does not interfere with the ready disposibility of the pad whensaturated, and is completely flexible and non-toxic or otherwiseirritating and noise free when walking, etc.--in other words, does notinterfere in any way with body movement. Preferably, the edges of thepad are tapered, and all garment seams are made as flat and thin aspossible, as is usual in undergarmentc'onstruction; in 'ord'ertominimize the "tendency" of the garment to show its outline and therebytelegraph its presence through outer clothing.

FIG, shows .the'manner in which the invention would be applied toa'crotch brief or bikini-type gar- ;ment consisting-essentially of astrap 21 supporting a crotch 23 which may be constructed essentiallysimilar to the crotch 3 of the garment shown in FIG. 1, except that ,itis dimensioned to be supported'essentially by the strap rather than bythe panty construction of FIG; 1. The crotch 23 Wi11,'0f course, containessentially the same type of pocket constructionas the crotch of FIG. .1It will be apparent that thesame construction can be applied to any typeof panty, from a bikini-type as shown in FIG. S, a brief-type panty, aband-legged brief, or a trunk panty. A pantygirdle may also use the sameconstruction, in which case the crotch construction will extend down tothe base of the girdle.

In the case of Women with an extra-heavy menstrual flow, the panty andinsert can be used in conjunction with an ordinary or conventionalsanitary pad, to catch any overflow, and prevent the possibility ofstaining outer clothing. The panty can also be worn when a tampon isused, in which case it catches the wicking from the protruding string,and transfers the excess so as to keep the underclothes completely freeof staining.

As the absorbent insert 16 is very efficiently placed by the garment, itneed not be as large nor as thick as a conventional sanitary napkin,since there is no danger of its slipping out of position and moistureequalizes over the entire area. Due to this increased efiiciency, thepad may be made smaller and considerably less expensive than theconventional sanitary napkin. Due both to the construction of the padand to the fact that there are several layers of material in the garmentitself, it is effective in preventing staining of expensive garments,and minimizing said pocket "having an open 'end at the front ofth'egar"- ment and closed sides and a closed rear end positioned to securelyretain an absorbent pad immovably during use, said open end being onlylarge enough forinsertion and removal of a narrow absorbent pad whichcan fit in the crotch portionbetween the legs whe'ninuse," f,

said pocket being dimensioned to snuglyreceive such a pad. '2. Theinvention according to claim 1, said'p'anel comprising at least twolayers .ofmaterial, one hydrophilic, one moisture-retaining, on the sideof the crotch toward the skin of the wearer, :the layer adjacent theskin having wicking action to draw .and'wickmoisture away from the skinof the wearer, and the next layer being effective to retain a limitedamount of such moisture.

3. The invention according to claim 2, and aremovable pad of hydrophilicmaterial in said pocket and in contact with said crotch panel to absorbmoisture from the panel material.

4. The invention according to claim 3, said pad having a thin layer ofwaterproof material attached thereto on the side out of contactwith saidpanel.

'5. The invention according to claim 4, said undergarment being apanty-type garment of strain-resistant fabric, said crotch being of thesame fabric, said panel being a generally rectangular patch of materialsewed to the'side of the crotch adjacent the skin of the wearer on threesides of the rectangular patch, with the fourth side left open towardthe front of the garment, two of said three sides being coextensive witha portion of the two edges of said .crotch .and being. caught into theedge binding of the crotch.

6. The invention according to claiml, said undergarment being a crotchbrief-type panty comprising a thin belt as the body-engaging portion,said crotch portion depending from said belt.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,555,434 6/1951 Anderson 1'282-88 2,616,427 v11/1952 Pettit 128-289 2,748,772 6/1956 Titone et al.128-288 2,807,263 9/1957 Newton 128 288 3,207,158 9/1965 Yoshitake etal. l28291 3,237,625 3/1966 Johnson 128 288 3,368,563 2/1968 Scheier128--288 CHARLES F. ROSENBAUM, Primary Examiner

